The traditional method of establishing a brokerage account with a broker involves the process of completing a brokerage account application, selecting a type of brokerage account, signing the application, submitting the application and funding the brokerage account. Typically, not until the application papers have been received and processed and the brokerage account funded (check clears, wire transfer complete, etc.) will an account holder be able to start trading on an account. Additionally, many brokers often require an Applicant to submit to a credit evaluation which may also delay the start of trading. With the changing market environments, volatility of the stock market, increases in trading volume, and high turn-around in everyday trading activity, along with other changes to investor behavior, investors are increasingly looking for ways to expedite the brokerage account application process so as to take advantage of these changing market conditions. In other words, investors do not wish to wait for a week, or even a day, until application papers are received and processed or for a check to clear.
A few online brokerage companies have recently entered the competition for investor business and have addressed some of the investor desires for expedited processing of brokerage applications. These online companies have expedited some of the processes by allowing the completion of the brokerage application online, thereby eliminating some of the delays associated with mailing the application to and from the broker. These online brokerage companies, however, have typically not allowed the Applicant to apply and get approved in a real-time environment for a brokerage account. In other words, although a brokerage account may be applied for online, the investor-Applicant must often wait until a later point in time for account approval. And, not until some later point in time is the Applicant then able to place a trade. Furthermore, not only is the online investor-applicant traditionally not able to complete the brokerage application process during the same online session, but the investor-applicant is not able to fund the account immediately. A need exists to overcome traditional problems of the prior art by allowing the investor-applicant to not only complete an online application in one online session, but to begin trading with a pre-established trading limit as well.